History (and related interesting facts)

Hidden history: engagement remained secret due to geopolitical/diplomatic sensitivities mainly to avoid "escalation" with the USSR.  This week the pilot Cpt Royce Williams now 97 yrs old will  be awarded the Navy Cross on Friday.

You could say I'm an amateur internet archaeologist digging up old films and documentaries.  I do like retro stuff and historical subjects.

Right. This isn't good enough. Must have big, big war. Ruins, fire, horrible sufferings, starvation, getting killed and raped. Millions and millions.

It strikes me that people who for some reason want big changes, and think they know a way to make things "better", have ALWAYS caused great disasters in history. Every time.

The Talented Mr Ridley

This film enraged Joseph Goebbels so much that he reportedly ran out of the viewing room kicking a chair and screaming profanities. Clips of the Nazi 'Triumph of the Will' propaganda film were re-edited to make it appear as though Nazi soldiers and Hitler are doing the Lambeth Walk dance. The 'Lambeth Walk' was a popular dance craze in the U.S. and Britain in the late 1930s. The film was edited by a British Ministry of Information official Charles A. Ridley. The Nazis were so infuriated by the parody video that Reich Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels placed Mr Ridley on a Gestapo list for elimination if Britain was defeated in World War II.  

This is a really complete, accurate and detailed account of what really happened to Kursk and all of its sailors.

It's also a revealing testimony to the competence and honesty of russian military. But nothing new there, if you're already aware of the long cruise to Tsushima and their various other wars.

Just go to YouTube to watch it.

Even Small Towns are Great Here (5 Years in the Netherlands) - Not Just Bikes.

The Dumbest Excuse for Bad Cities - Not Just Bikes.

A colossal statue of the Roman emperor Constantine has been reconstructed by a leading British art expert with the help of marble fragments that survived centuries of war, earthquakes and looting.  The massive replica of the statue that Emperor Constantine commissioned for himself after 312 AD was unveiled by authorities in Rome on Tuesday 6 February.

The 42ft/13 metre tall statue of Constantine, who was proclaimed emperor by his troops in York (Eboracum) Northern England in 306 AD was unveiled on Tuesday on top of the Campidoglio, a prominent hill in the heart of the Italian capital. Experts made 3D scans of the 10 surviving fragments of the ancient statue, including its head, feet and a hand.  The task of digitally mapping the fragments and then turning them into an exact replica of the original statue fell to specialist company Factum Foundation a Madrid-based non-profit , which is headed by Adam Lowe, a British art history expert.  Based in Madrid, Factum Foundation’s digital experts and traditional artisans were able to reproduce every part of the statue in acrylic resin, polyurethane and marble powder for the body, and gold leaf and plaster for the tunic that drapes over it. 



“This whole dynamic about how you use technology to transform our understanding of and the importance of cultural heritage is the core mission of Factum Foundation,” said the group’s founder Adam Lowe. The recreated statue has been built to last. Mr Lowe said: “It’s waterproof. The main issues it will face will be city grime and bird droppings, so it will need to be cleaned.



There are plans to create a second reconstructed statue and locate it at Binchester near Bishop Auckland in County Durham, Northern England where the ancient Romans built a fort. Constantine was deployed to the area before being proclaimed emperor in York in AD306.  

from "The Irish News"/ "The Telegraph"